SCHNEIDER CUP

Hokitika Guardian, 15 September 1931, Page 5

SCHNEIDER CUP

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, September 12

When it was officially announced at Calshot that the weather conditions would make flying Mu Tropiiy impossible,- to-day, tbe Prime Minister and other guests of the Government on the aTrcralt-earrLr, Courageous, landed, and Mr MacDonald left immediately for Chequers. The previous record for the Solent Schneider Cup, course established by tbe late Squadron Leader Waghorn, for Britain in 1929, was 328.63 miles an hour. Boothman’s fastest .np was his firt, which took five minutes 26 seOmd, .-a speed of 341.1 miles an hour, which compares with the bjst lap speed in the previous race of 332.49 miles an hour. BootTmuni’s best time for 100 kilometers during the- race, was over the first two lap: where his time was 10 minutes 52.8 seconds; a speed of 342.8 miles an hour.

After 'the seventh lap, Boothman took the machine high into the s then circled round over the Solent to make a perfect landing in aeionautical circles.

To-day’s triumphs by . Boothman and Stainforth are regarded as havim been won in a month’s technical scientific struggle preceding the race, and as constituting a remarkable tribute to the supremacy of British engines and aircraft builders. - '

STAINFORTH’S SPEED.

WHAT IT MEANS.

FURTHER RECORD SOUGHT.

LONDON, September 1

Stainforth’s speed of 404 miles a n hour means that an aviator leavingLondon at noon could be in New York at dinner time ; but his would be a straightforward affair compared with the Schneider test.

A slow service plane hovered at an altitude of thirteen hundred feet to mark the limit, and Stainforth was allowed to fly thence from Spithead. He dived to a straight course, and -t a few minutes later the tests were completed. Whereas Orlebar ordered Boothman to fly “safety first”—that is,, if'; the engine got too hot, he was to throttle down—Stainforh went all out.

Boothman’s trouble was due to the terrific centrifugal force when he swung round the Pylons. His arm had to bo massaged af'er the flight, and lie was in agony for some minutes while the circulation was being restored. Stainforth, however, came ashore a» unconcerned as if he had just come in from a swim.

The Air Ministry, however, is still unsatisfied, and it has intimated this evening that a specially, “boosted’;’ engine, which arrived from the RollsRoyce works on Saturday, will be installed in Stnniforth’s monoplane for a second attempt at. a high speed record, which, it is hoped, will be raised well over 400 miles an hour within the next two or three days, .